Seoul urges N. Korea to accept military communication materials

By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has expressed its hope that North Korea will accept an offer to send materials and equipment necessary to improve military communications between the two sides, officials said Friday.

The South Korean military sent a telephone message to the North on Thursday,
proposing a working-level meeting be held to discuss details of Seoul's plan to
send the materials. The offer was made a day after the North threatened to
tighten cross-border restrictions in protest at the conservative Seoul
government's tough policy toward the North. Pyongyang also cut all direct
telephone lines passing through the truce village of Panmunjom.
"North Korea has yet to respond to the proposal," Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for the
Unification Ministry on North Korea affairs, said in a regular press briefing.
"We expect the North to accept the offer since it has repeatedly demanded
donation of the materials and equipment and it also wants to expand and develop
the Kaesong industrial complex," Kim said.
Eighty-three South Korean labor-intensive manufacturers operate in Kaesong to
benefit from the North's cheap land and labor. They employ about 35,000 North
Korean workers.
Relations have worsened since South Korea's pro-U.S., conservative President Lee
Myung-bak took office in February and began linking inter-Korean relations with
North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
Seoul officials and analysts see the North's latest spate of threats as aimed to
press Lee back to engagement policy pursued by his two liberal predecessors.
The two Koreas are linked by nine military hot lines but some are out of service
for technical reasons, according to the ministry. Improving the lines would help
quicken customs procedures for South Korean border crossers to Kaesong and
ultimately contribute to reactivating the industrial park, officials said.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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